In the mortal realm, sixteen years later, Qiwang Mountain.
This was the domain of the Medicine Spirit Sect, one of the four major sects. As the premier alchemy sect in the profound cultivation world, the Medicine Spirit Sect controlled the entire market for medicinal pills and was exceptionally wealthy.
Consequently, the entire sect presented a resplendent, golden-in-every-direction facade from the outside in.
That evening, inside the apothecary on Yucang Peak, Yan Mingqiu was dozing off while processing spiritual herbs.
Bang! Yun Feng, the master of Yucang Peak, kicked the door open, carrying an unconscious youth slung over his shoulder.
Yan Mingqiu scampered over, a bright smile blossoming on his face. “Master, you’re back!”
Yun Feng had been away on leisure travels for a full month, leaving Yan Mingqiu all alone on Yucang Peak. Having to go about his days entirely by his lonesome, he had felt truly lonely.
Yun Feng deposited the youth onto the low daybed by the moon-shaped window. Yan Mingqiu hurried over to take a look, and upon catching sight of the youth’s face, he froze.
A gentle breeze drifted in through the moon-shaped window, skimming across the youth’s handsome features. The youth remained unconscious, his brows slightly furrowed, his complexion pale, and his long eyelashes casting dense shadows. With a high bridge of the nose and thin lips pressed into a tight line, his entire presence exuded an icy, snow-like aloofness.
“Smitten, are you?” Yun Feng brandished his fist and gave Yan Mingqiu a couple of light raps on the head. “Little Mingqiu, were you slacking off again just now?”
Only then did Yan Mingqiu snap back to reality, shaking his head frantically. “Master, I wasn’t! I really was processing the spiritual herbs.”
Yun Feng glanced over at the spot where Yan Mingqiu had just been sitting. “You only managed to handle this pathetic amount of herbs the entire day, and you call that not slacking off?”
With that, he administered two more raps to Yan Mingqiu’s head. “You’ve been up on the mountain for ten years now, and you’re still only in the Qi Condensation stage. Can’t you apply yourself a bit more? In your youth, your mother was every bit as lazy as you. I want a batch of hemostatic pills refined within three days!”
Yan Mingqiu’s pretty face fell. “Master, give me a few more days. Those hemostatic pills are not easy to refine.”
Yun Feng waved a hand dismissively. “I said three days, and I mean three days. I have another task for you: thoroughly clean up this person. He’s heavily injured, so be gentle.”
Yan Mingqiu reached out a finger to poke the figure lying on the daybed. “Master, who is this?”
“No idea. I picked him up in a secret realm. Judging by his condition, he looks like he was injured fighting mystical beasts inside the realm. He has over a dozen bone fractures all over his body, including in his skull; goodness knows if he’ll ever wake up. I’ve already treated him, but I’ll write out another prescription. Boil it into a medicinal decoction, and use the warm broth to wipe down his body every day. With internal and external treatments applied simultaneously, he might just wake up in ten days or half a month.”
As he spoke, Yun Feng sat down at the desk nearby to write the prescription.
“What if he doesn’t wake up?” Yan Mingqiu tilted his head and asked his master.
“If he doesn’t wake up? If he doesn’t wake up, we’ll go dig a pit behind the mountain and bury him. If I can’t save him, nobody else can either, so we might as well put him out of his misery early and grant him ultimate release,” Yun Feng replied without lifting his head.
“Master, that’s murder, you know,” Little Mingqiu squeaked, suffering a level-ten psychological shock.
“No, that’s saving lives. I’m doing it for his own good so he suffers fewer torments and reaches paradise sooner.” Having said his piece, Yun Feng picked up the freshly written prescription, handed it to Yan Mingqiu, and walked away without looking back.
As an alchemist, Yan Mingqiu possessed a certain noble aspiration to heal the wounded and rescue the dying, so he dedicated himself heart and soul to caring for the youth.
It was just that while wiping down the youth’s body, he couldn’t help muttering under his breath, “This guy looks about my age, but he’s developed quite well. Sigh, comparing oneself to others only makes one want to die of frustration.”
Yan Mingqiu chanted a Cleansing Heart Mantra internally while diligently wiping the youth down.
Under Yan Mingqiu’s meticulous care, in less than ten days, the youth finally regained consciousness.
Seeing the youth’s eyes flutter open, Yan Mingqiu brought his hands together in a prayer gesture. “Thank goodness, thank goodness. Blessings from the Three Pure Ones.”
The youth swept a wide-eyed gaze across the room before fixing his sight entirely on Yan Mingqiu, asking with a bewildered frown, “Who… who are you?”
Yan Mingqiu pointed a thumb at himself. “Who am I? I’m your granddaddy.”
“Grand… daddy?” The youth narrowed his eyes in confusion. The person before him possessed astonishingly breathtaking looks wasn’t this supposed to be a young woman?
Yan Mingqiu choked on his own breath, stood up, and reached out to check the youth’s head. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Did his brain get scrambled from the fall?”
He was only sixteen years old this year, possessed fair skin and exquisite beauty, with a slender waist and long legs. He had just tossed out a casual joke did the guy actually take him for a granddaddy?!
He poked and prodded all over, but unable to diagnose any obvious problem, he had no choice but to summon his master.
After a thorough examination, Yun Feng arrived at a clinical conclusion: blood clots in the youth’s brain were pressing against his neural pathways, causing amnesia.
“Then let him stay on Yucang Peak for now. He can leave once the clots disperse and his memory returns,” Yun Feng instructed Yan Mingqiu.
Joy bloomed in Yan Mingqiu’s heart. Having spent ten years on the mountain without making a single peer friend, he finally had some company.
After his master left, Yan Mingqiu picked up the sword lying nearby and handed it to the youth. “This is what my master found tightly clutched in your hand when he discovered you. You’re a sword cultivator, aren’t you?”
The youth reached out, took the sword, and instinctively drew it from its scabbard. An icy, biting chill radiated from the blade, a freezing aura that felt strangely, deeply familiar to him. “I suppose so. I don’t remember.”
Yan Mingqiu asked, “Do you remember your name?”
The youth shook his head.
Resting his chin in his hands, Yan Mingqiu let his gaze drift toward the youth’s sword. “Then let me pick one for you. How about ‘Chenhan’?”
“Why the surname Chen?” The youth tilted his head, puzzled.
Yan Mingqiu glanced up at the sky outside the window. “Pure sixth sense. I just have a feeling you belong to the Chen family.”
The youth gave a nod. “Mm.”
Yan Mingqiu gestured toward himself. “This is the Medicine Spirit Sect. My name is Yan Mingqiu, and that person you saw earlier is my master, Immortal Yunshang. My master gave you a top-grade Great Reversion Pill, so your external injuries are mostly healed, but it will still take some time for your meridians to fully recover. Since you’ve been bedridden for so long, you should get up and stretch your legs. It happens to be dinnertime right now; I’ll take you to the Spirit Dining Hall. They have heaps of delicious food there, and every dish is infused with spiritual herbs and medicines. Eating them will be immensely beneficial to your recovery.”
“Mm,” Chenhan replied as he kicked off the quilt. Glancing down to see that he was only dressed in clean undergarments, a jolt went through his heart. “Did you… change my clothes?”
“Yeah. Your old clothes were shredded by mystical beasts, so the one you’re wearing is mine. You’re taller than I am, so it’s a bit snug on you. Let’s head down the mountain after dinner to buy you some new clothes,” Yan Mingqiu said as he stood up to rummage through the wardrobe.
To make tending to Chenhan easier, Yan Mingqiu had arranged for him to take over the bed while he himself slept on the daybed.
Lowering his head, Chenhan got out of bed with stiff, awkward movements, his expression extraordinarily unnatural.
Clad in Yan Mingqiu’s disciple attire with his sword strapped across his back, Chenhan followed closely behind Yan Mingqiu toward the Spirit Dining Hall.
The two walked in single file, their shadows stretched long in the setting sun. Chenhan was a full head taller than Yan Mingqiu, trailing right at his heels step for step.
The moment they stepped into the Spirit Dining Hall, they were met with a succession of cold glances and a rising wave of surrounding whispers.
“Well, well, look who it is. Isn’t that the sole surviving seedling of Yucang Peak?”
“Haven’t seen him show up here in ages. Who’s that person behind him? Could it be Immortal Yunshang’s new personal disciple? I haven’t heard a word about it.”
“Definitely not. Look at the disciple robes he’s wearing they don’t even fit properly. They’re bound to be Yan Mingqiu’s hand-me-downs.”
A burly youth strode forward, blocking their path. “Hah, looks like any stray cat or dog dares to come strutting into the Spirit Dining Hall for a meal these days.”
This individual was Lin浦 (Lin Pu), the personal disciple of Sect Leader Immortal Zhulan. Born into a prominent aristocratic family, he walked around with his nose permanently pointed at the sky.
Yan Mingqiu glared at him impatiently. “What did you say?”
“Oh? Triggered already? And here I wasn’t even talking about you,” Lin Pu said, sweeping his gaze past Yan Mingqiu to land on Chenhan. “I was talking about the person behind you. He’s no disciple of our Medicine Spirit Sect, is he?”
Yan Mingqiu stepped in front of Chenhan, glaring indignantly at Lin Pu. “He is a guest of Yucang Peak. Naturally, he has every right to dine here.”
“You say he’s a guest, but where’s the proof? Judging by how shifty and demonic he looks, he’s probably a spy from the demon race!” Lin Pu puffed out his chest, striking an overbearing, domineering pose.
“I am a personal disciple of Yucang Peak, and my word is the proof. We are going to eat right here, right now. If you’ve got the guts, go take it up with my master!” With that, Yan Mingqiu shoved Lin Pu aside and pulled Chenhan along with him.
At the mere mention of Immortal Yunshang, Lin Pu gnashed his teeth in suppressed fury.
In the past, Lin Pu used to rally others to bully Yan Mingqiu. Because Yan Mingqiu loathed disturbing his master over such trivial matters, he had always kept it to himself, quietly enduring every instance.
Over time, Lin Pu and his cohorts realized that Yan Mingqiu was a soft persimmon who never filed complaints, emboldening them to act with even greater ruthlessness.
One rainy night, Lin Pu used the fabricated name of the senior head disciple, Mu Jiusi, to lure Yan Mingqiu out. Ambushing him along the path with over a dozen people, they beat Yan Mingqiu until he was a bloody mess.
Yan Mingqiu had dragged himself back to Yucang Peak through the torrential rain, collapsing that very night with a high fever that rendered him unconscious for five whole days and nights. Not a single soul had checked on him during that time, and he wasn’t discovered until Yun Feng finally returned.
After healing Yan Mingqiu and uncovering the whole story, Yun Feng had personally marched up to Biluo Peak, grabbed Lin Pu, and thrashed him so severely that the youth was bedridden for half a year.
Ever since that beating, Lin Pu had reined himself in somewhat, though his tongue remained as vicious as ever, stinging Yan Mingqiu with sarcastic barbs every single time they crossed paths.
Seeing Yan Mingqiu walk away, Chenhan followed, but as he brushed past Lin Pu, he shot him a ferocious glare. “You’re the demon! Your whole family are demons!”
For reasons unknown, Chenhan felt an instinctive, visceral revulsion upon hearing the word “demon.” He loathed the very thought of being labeled one.
Blinding rage instantly surged through Lin Pu. I might not be able to touch Yan Mingqiu, but surely I can deal with an outsider like you, can’t I?